Alfred P. Sloan in his book "My Years with General Motors" ends by saying that:

"It has been the thesis of this book that good management rests on the reconciliation of
centralization and decentralization ..." (p. 429)

Perhaps, even more generally, the primary managerial problems are those of coordination and
adaptation.

Authority, cultural norms, and the price system must be used in a delicate balance to achieve this
coordination.

Strategic coherence among Positioning, Resources & Capabilities, and Organizational Structure
are difficult to imitate and are the source of sustainable competitive advantage.

In the Wal-mart case, we see that complex systems where continuous learning can be
facilitated are the primary source of sustainable competitive advantage.

The head of planning for Royal Dutch Shell recently put it this way:

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors [a learning organization] may be the only sustainable competitive advantage."

We must conclude along with Chester Barnard (1938) that systems thinking is at the heart of
management. "Organizations are systems ...." (1938, p. 77).

Four points to be made:

Systems often cause their own crisis, not external forces, or individual mistakes.

People often have potential leverage to improve the system as they learn how they influence the system.

Experimentation is very important in complex systems in order to facilitate learning --
consider Toyota's "trial-and-error" approach to continuous improvement.

Collaborative learning is often critical because the cooperation of different people may
culminate in results of the utmost importance.

The executive functions:

Provide a system of communication;

Maintain the willingness to cooperate;

Ensure the continuing integrity of organization purpose; and

(d) Provide leadership: the personal capacity for affirming decisions that lend quality
and morality to the coordination of organized activity and to the formation of
purpose.

Importance of Responsibility:

It is not merely experience of the world which changes and develops executives, but still more the practice of deciding and acting under the burden of responsibility for the consequences.

Importance of Effective Leadership:

Leadership qualities seem to be connected with knowing whom to believe, with accepting the right suggestions, and with selecting appropriate occasions and times.

High ideals are a matter of observation:

"Old men [and old women] plant trees."

In short, Barnard's message is that management matters a great deal. Intellectual acceptance
of this proposition is not enough. Emotional acceptance of a moral commitment is required if
one is to achieve fully one's calling to carry the burdens of responsibility and the "functions of the
executive."